Flemish nationalists break cover on Belgium’s future

Belgium’s largest party dusted off its plans to create a separate Flemish state, undermining a promise it made to coalition partners to bury its core message of splitting the country in two.

Bart De Wever, leader of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), last week tasked his parliamentary whip with devising a strategy on securing greater autonomy for Flanders after national elections in 2019, devolving powers to such an extent that Belgium will eventually cease to exist. Hendrik Vuye, a professor in constitutional law, will now have to work out how the party could dismantle Belgium’s notoriously complex state structures.

The move has provoked anger among other Belgian parties, who fear a repetition of the political deadlock of 2010-2011, when it took 541 days to form a federal government.

It comes at a time when the government has advocated moving in the opposite direction: strengthening federal law enforcement powers in the wake of the terrorist scares that followed the Paris attacks, which raised awareness of the Flemish nationalists at national and international level.

But De Wever has another constituency to please: the N-VA’s core voters, who back a separate Flemish state and have felt increasingly abandoned as the party successfully moved into the mainstream by smoothing off the rough edges.

The party’s plans revolve around the notion of “confederalism” — which even Vuye admits is a hard concept to grasp.

The party’s plans revolve around the notion of “confederalism” — which even Vuye admits is a hard concept to grasp. “The term has a different connotation in Belgium than abroad. We see it as an extended form of federalism,” he told POLITICO. The idea is to have a union of states in which each part has extensive, independent powers over internal and external affairs.

“We’re building on ideas agreed on by the party in 2014, and working to put these into concrete law proposals,” Veerle Wouters, the party’s specialist on Belgian finances, who will be working alongside Vuye, said. “We have to test the water and find public support for this notion of confederalism.”

Joined together, pulling apart

Belgium has been moving in this direction for decades, shifting more and more powers from state to regional level, turning the country into an ever-looser union between Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia — with Brussels and the tiny German-speaking community caught in the middle.

Parties from across the linguistic divide work out compromises at the federal level on issues such as justice, foreign affairs and interior affairs, while regional governments control the likes of education, culture and integration policy. Many policy areas are, in typically Belgian fashion, subject to a complex power play between different levels of government.

The Flemish nationalists’ pitch is, according to Wouters: “At the federal level, we will ask the question: What are we still willing to do together? In principle, all competences would move to the regional level, but there will be competences of which we’d argue it is better, or more efficient, to do them together.”

And they won’t shy away from radical methods, with Vuye suggesting they could even bypass the Belgian constitution. “Ideally, the Belgian constitution will be opened up for revision,” he said, “but constitutional law isn’t just about that text.”

The party’s aim is to dismantle the federal state so much that Belgium would cease to exist over time. “[The debate] will revolve around larger issues,” prominent party member Liesbeth Homans said in a recent interview, adding that this could cause Belgium “to disappear” by 2025.

The N-VA’s backyard

With the appointment of Vuye as state reform czar, De Wever has cast doubt on the future of the federal government, of which the N-VA is the largest member. The N-VA want to devolve more powers, but its coalition partners do not.

The N-VA has been increasingly in the spotlight over the past year, with Interior Minister Jan Jambon the point-man in the fight against terrorism and Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt dealing with a shift in taxation policy.

The party had been building up to Vuye’s appointment for weeks, putting statements in the press intended to appease traditional N-VA voters and frighten political opponents terrified that the country might fall apart.

A Flemish nationalist figurehead, Jean-Pierre Rondas of the online magazine Doorbraak.be, wrote in De Standaard: “If you’re a Belgium-lover you’d better hope that the N-VA is part of a government: You’re ensured a period of peace on the debate of the reform of the state.”

De Wever’s new frontman on constitutional affairs has three years to prepare the battleground on reform of the state, which is expected to play a key role in the 2019 election campaign.

De Wever’s new frontman on constitutional affairs has three years to prepare the battleground on reform of the state, which is expected to play a key role in the 2019 election campaign.

“The awareness that a [new] reform of the state is coming is known by all political parties,” Vuye said. “The question is when, and how big, this round will be. We have to prepare for that.”

Bad memories

Vuye’s mission means the end of a year of relative peace on the question of the country’s future.

For other Belgian parties, it has uncomfortable echoes of 2010-2011. Then, the N-VA enjoyed electoral success but the party’s demands to dismantle the state proved too much for its opponents. The result was political deadlock.

But De Wever in 2014 reconsidered his demands in exchange for a shot at power when he struck a deal with Prime Minister Charles Michel to put the push for state reform in the deep-freeze.

Michel’s reaction to De Wever’s move last week was to stress that there “would not be a reform of the state before 2019.”

Elio Di Rupo, a former prime minister and current president of the French-speaking Socialists (PS), told public broadcaster RTBF: “The N-VA is holding its circus. We won’t play along … We don’t want to enter these N-VA games … The PS will preserve the country’s existence.”

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Strindberg

“Balkanize” Belgium! Make 4 states out of one: Flanders (Flemish), Wallonia (French), Brussels (Mixed) and Eupen-Malmedy (German). It has been clear for many years now that there is no real coherence in the state of Belgium .it is meaningless to carry on with status quo. Let them go apart instead of getting worse. I can draw the flags if needed, free of charge. The EU should keep out of the developments in Belgium: it is ONLY up to the people of Belgium to decide on this issue, not the “eurocrats”.

Posted on 1/23/16 | 1:12 PM CEST

Mark Mergaerts

The N-VA did not “bury” its core messages to let De Wever have “a shot at power”. The party agreed to enter a centre-right coalition and to put its constitutional demands on hold for the next five years in order to pursue an agenda of economic reform. This was not just an intelligent but probably a necessary move: the economy of Flanders is strong but struggling, and greatly in need of a hefty does of liberalism. There would have been little point in chasing far-reaching changes to the structure of the state (with little hope of success given the “constitutional fatigue” of the other parties after a previous round of reform), while at the same time giving the Parti Socialiste in the federal government five more years of trying to impose its French-style socialism on the whole country.

Posted on 1/23/16 | 6:16 PM CEST

Steve

Belgium is a bad joke of a nation, and a rotten state. Get rid of it and end the farce once and for all! Then things can move forward.

Posted on 1/23/16 | 7:16 PM CEST

juvenis

Anything to weaken and keep out of power awful antediluvian socialists out is good for ” Belgians” from whatever linguistic background. They are the real destroyers and undertakers of all regions albeit mainly red Wallonia and dysfunctional Brussels . If NVA has to be the means towards that goal , so be it .

Posted on 1/25/16 | 3:42 AM CEST

HP

The core issue is to let citizens decide what country they want to be part of. Flanders can go, but not with the French-speaking areas around Brussels and Fourons which will need to vote on their future.